Welcome to 🎓 African Studies!

It's more than just an academic degree, it's a school of thought ! 💭

👩🏼 About me
📚 Introduction to African Studies
🧶 Enroll in African Studies
💼 Labour market

👩🏼 About me

As a former student of the Bachelor's degree in African Studies of the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon, also known as Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa (FLUL), I will introduce you to what started as a potential professional interest to me, but became a passion :fire:, that ultimately spiralled me into a world of infinite curiosity about what I didn't know, as well as about what I thought that I knew.

My name is Elisabeta . I was born in Romania 🇷🇴 some decades ago, in a little picturesque corner, situated in the very North-West of the country, at scarce distance from the borders with Hungary 🇭🇺 and Ukraine 🇺🇦, and what made it so was its people, its cultural traditions and daily dynamics, which despite being so vibrant and fascinating, started to be placed in a paradigm of "primitivism" to its detriment, while the urban spirit was being programmed into the people's behaviour, which had repercussions over the further transmission of the cultural identity to the new generations, almost to the point of its renegation, and I found myself impacted by such circumstance, seeking, during my adulthood, to learn about my own cultural identity, by sporadically returning to the roots in presence, as well as through documentation and oral tradition, a necessity that was born within me while I was learning about African cultures at the university, in Portugal, as so often I would find myself attempting to establish common grounds between what I was learning - about the African continent - and what I thought I knew by default - my cradle.

📚 Introduction to African Studies

African Studies is a response to the growing interest for the African continent and to the intensification of the relations between Portugal and Europe with the African continent.

The study programmes provide multidisciplinary scientific training in Social Sciences and Humanities to train specialists in matters related to Africa. The students are expected to acquire tools to face the challenges posed by the labor market in many fields: as advisors of private and public companies; in governmental and international cooperation agencies; in nongovernmental organisations for development, cooperation and social solidarity; in institutions related to diplomacy and international relations; in economic, social, cultural and pedagogical activities. The Study Program further contributes to knowledge construction in its different disciplinary domains in order to ensure its continuity at postgraduate level.

Why is it a school of thought 💭 , you wonder? Throughout any of the study cycles, the students go through a panoply of concepts, such as it follows:
Intercultural communication, Hybridism, Multiculturality, Transculturality; Subjectivity, relativism, ambivalence, antagonisms, dichotomy; Nationalism, independence, (post-)colonialism, identity, social constructions; Race, tribalism, kinship, culture(s), customs, ethnography, languages, religion; spirituality; Borders, citizenship and immigration, exclusion, segregation, integration, multilingualism, poverty, diaspora; Difference, stereotype, prejudice, subalternity; Countering stereotypes, pan-africanism, negritude, transcendence, critical thinking; Power, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, exotism, intersectionality; Darwinism, evolution, tradition, modernity, development, civilisation, discoveries; Globalisation, international, multinational, transnational, technology, expansion, resources, potentialities, trade, aid, etc.

By embodying these concepts, as students, as individuals and as professionals, we become more self-aware and more sensitised towards the problematics of the diverse societies we live in, as we get to know in-depth the historical backgrounds, as social, economic and political dynamics of the African continent, that inevitably impact the rest of the world in so many ways.

🧶 Enroll in African Studies

You can access superior education in African Studies , both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Click on the links below to learn about the study programmes and institutions, so you can choose what suits you best:

👉 Unique in Portugal and with 20 years of age, the Bachelor's degree in African Studies, hosted by FLUL, offers a multidisciplinary training, guaranteed by partnerships with other academic institutions, such as: Instituto de Geografia e Ordenamento do Território (IGOT), Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Politicas (ISCSP), Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Lisboa (FDUL), and Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL).
It gives the students the chance to get involved in activities of the Centre for History Research of the University of Lisbon, as well as to be agents of change, by integrating them in the Study Programme Advisory Board, where students of each year and representatives of each disciplinary department gather to discuss issues related to the Bachelor degree's functioning.

Bachelor in African Studies @ FLUL

👉 Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas (ISCSP) is a centenary school with a unique repository of knowledge and expertise in the study of Africa and the African diaspora. It offers a Master in African Studies, with highly qualified and specialised teaching staff, and the possibility to integrate an active and internationalised research community: the Center for African Studies.

Master in African Studies @ ISCSP

👉 ISCTE-IUL offers the Master in African Studies, one of the oldest and most prestigious in both Europe and the Portuguese-speaking territories. In existence since 1989, the program provides training for professionals in diverse fields: research and teaching, the business sector, diplomacy and public administration, as well as national, international and civil society organisations.

Master in African Studies @ ISCTE-IUL

👉 ISCTE-IUL offers as well a PhD programme in African Studies. Provides training for researchers, teachers and professionals in various fields that allows them to acquire an in-depth view of the theories and methodologies of African Studies and develop the capacities to analyse and research African societies.

Phd in African Studies @ ISCTE-IUL

💼 Labour market

Relationship of the study programme with business network and the public sector

African Studies have been promoting curricular internships, both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, at:

▶️ Enterprise (such as Factor Social)

▶️ Public agencies (such as Camões - Instituto de Cooperação e da Língua, I.P., RTP, IICT - Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical, Observatório da China, UCCLA - União das Cidades Capitais de Língua Portuguesa, ACM, I.P., etc)

▶️ Non-governamental institutions (such as Instituto Marquês de Valle Flôr, Leigos para o Desenvolvimento, Cáritas Portuguesa, CIDAC - Centro de Intervenção para o Desenvolvimento Amílcar Cabral, etc.)

▶️ Diplomatic representations (Embaixada da República de Cabo Verde em Portugal, Embaixada da República de Angola em Portugal)

These host institutions recognise the valuable contribution of African Studies trainees in the fulfillment of their goals, based both on the quality of participation in their projects and activities and on the preparation of products which are useful for their functioning, and that eventually opens doors to our students.